Slow-Cooker Monday: White Bean Soup

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news is that you can spend a few minutes in the morning throwing this soup together, then spend the rest of the day in a blissfully cool house that smells like bacon. The bad news? A bowl of hot soup for dinner. Temperatures reached 100 degrees this weekend, but we ate so little during the day that the kids devoured this soup anyway. Add bread and cheese and some fruit for dessert.

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See what I did below:

This starts with some bacon, so since it was morning I made a whole package so we could eat some for breakfast, and when I was done cooking it this is what I had left in the pan (I drained the grease first):

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I couldn't let that go to waste, so I softened some vegetables in it: carrots, celery and red onion.

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I had presoaked 2 cups dried white beans overnight, so I put them in the slow-cooker with 6 cups chicken stock, the softened vegetables, 2 chopped slices of cooked bacon and a bay leaf.

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Eight hours on low in the slow-cooker, then I pureed some of the soup with an immersion blender. At this point you should taste the soup and season with salt and pepper, but I left it kind of bland for the kids. The chicken stock and bacon are salty, so you might be good without any extra seasoning, too.